Palestinian American back at besieged West Bank home but Israeli settlers remain

Loui Ridi (Majdi Mohammed/AP)

The Palestinian American whose home in the occupied West Bank has been besieged for more than a week has confronted Israeli settlers and demanded Israeli forces remove them from his property.

But on his first day back at his home in the village of Qusra, Loui Ridi was ultimately told to go inside because the area was a closed military zone.

Soldiers asked the settlers to leave the area as well, but Mr Ridi said he saw at least three close enough to return and threaten his family if the army leaves.

“If I need to walk outside of my house, I’m not able. I have to get a permission and co-ordination and it’s going to take hours if it’s even possible to leave,” he said.

Mr Ridi shouted at one of the settlers to get off his property and pleaded with the soldiers to remove them, according to video he shared with the Associated Press. He told the settler he was not allowed to be there and called him a terrorist.

Soldiers told Mr Ridi to get back inside his home, while pleading with settlers to leave peacefully.

The exchange extinguished any sense of victory remaining after he managed, with the aid of a military escort, to enter his home on Monday. He said the encounter epitomised how the army has been unable or unwilling to clear the area of settlers.

“As soon as (Israeli soldiers) leave — like if they leave today — probably on the same day or a couple hours later, the settlers may come back and build the same tent in front of my house,” he said.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank alongside 560,000 Israeli settlers who live in a growing number of communities and farming outposts across the territory.

Emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, extremist settlers have routinely attacked villages and set homes, cars and mosques ablaze in the occupied West Bank this year.

The international community largely considers Israeli settlements to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Settlers have staged takeovers of other Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. In the neighbouring village of Jalud, settlers surrounded a home last month and prevented Palestinians from entering or exiting until they decided to escape and not come back.

Palestinian officials say 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers this year. Three Israelis have been killed including two in a nearby clash last month.

Violent settlers rarely face arrest by Israeli police or prosecution in the courts.

Mr Ridi, a 46-year-old who lives with his family in Ohio but has a second home in Qusra, arrived on Monday, climbing his stairs and raising an American flag on his roof.

The US — Israel’s closest ally — has condemned the siege in Qusra, now in its 10th day. President Donald Trump has said he opposes Israeli efforts to annex the West Bank but signalled broad acceptance of settlements and, at the start of his second term, lifted sanctions on settlers accused of violence.

Mr Ridi said he cannot go out to buy groceries without permission and has asked US officials to help guarantee he can bring supplies back to his home in the closed military zone on Qusra’s outskirts.

He said he slept for four hours in a room where he kept the shutters closed because settlers had previously thrown rocks at the windows.

When he woke up on Tuesday and went outside to confront the settlers and soldiers, one settler demanded in Hebrew that the soldiers make him go back inside, saying Mr Ridi’s yard belonged to them.

“Take them to their home. You said it’s a closed military zone,” the settler told an Israeli soldier, according to Mr Ridi’s video.

The soldiers told everyone to leave, saying: “We don’t need this commotion.”

Israel’s military said on Tuesday that the closed military zone had been cleared but did not answer questions about settlers’ presence in and around the Palestinian village.

Soldiers have repeatedly dismantled their tents and shades in the area only to have the settlers return to an area on the outskirts of the village 10 miles from the Palestinian city of Nablus.

One settler was detained last week but Israeli police have not reported any arrests.